Bastion

By Gustavo Bondoni

The High Priestess on the run. The water bearer on a mission. Their fates intertwined in Bastion.

In this arid, desolate world, Kine of the Wolf Clan is the water-bearer, serving his people who cling to survival in the uppermost levels of the ancient fortress. Their sworn enemies, the Sol Clan, have isolated them from the rest of the Redoubt.

When Kine's lifelong friend, Vianna, mysteriously disappears, he suspects she's fallen victim to the Sol Clan's treacherous grasp. Determined to rescue her, Kine embarks on a perilous journey that leads him to an unexpected encounter with Celeste, a High Priestess fleeing her own people.

As Redoubt's cutthroat politics unravel around them, Kine and Celeste form an unlikely alliance. Together, they plunge deeper into the heart of the fortress, endangering the lives of its inhabitants while racing against time to save their world.

With relentless pursuit by Celeste's adversaries and no clue to Vianna's whereabouts, the fate of everyone hangs in the balance. Join the Wolf and Sol outcasts as they fight to safeguard their world in this enthralling sci-fi masterpiece. Bastion will leave you breathless, craving more with every turn of the page.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Novus Mundi Publishing
• Release date: Dec 1, 2023
• ISBN: 9781961511583

Book preview

1

Kine looked down over the wall. It was overcast outside, which meant that he couldn’t see the ground below—only the tops of the dense clouds.

He sighed. It almost seems like we could reach out and touch them.

Vianna, his closest clan-mate, gave him an arch look. There’s nothing you can do about it, no matter how many times you say the same thing. And if you lean too far, you’ll only prove once again that the clouds won’t hold our weight. She paused and then shrugged. Of course, that might not be a bad thing for the Clan. One less mouth to feed.

I probably feed more mouths than any other single member of the Clan except you.

True. But not even you can cause the clouds to come higher. Only high clouds water the Wolf Clan. Low clouds belong to the Sols.

It’s not fair that they get all the rain, he replied, unconsciously wiping the sweat from his brow. The sun beat strong on his bare shoulders and chest.

Perhaps, but that’s the way it is.

We’re dying.

Vianna said nothing, and he looked longingly down the side of the wall. The grey stone, eroded by the passing of the ages, was broken by the balconies which opened onto the outer halls of the Clan. Just a few dozen levels below the point where the Wolf Clan’s territory ended, the clouds began. He imagined the water pouring into cisterns controlled by other peoples, imagined the cool liquid running down his parched throat…and seethed.

But, as his clan-mate said, there was nothing he could do about it. He adjusted his hat to block the hard sun and walked away from the edge. There was work to do.

They returned to where they’d left the water containers. The frontier between the human-made walls of the Redoubt—made of worn, pebbled grey stone—and the natural black rock of the mountains that towered sheerly above them was their main source of water. Though it snowed during the cold season, the amount the Clan could keep in the cisterns below was not enough to tide them through the rest of the year, which meant that they had to collect runoff every day. The countless trips up several ramps that the Wolf Clan’s youth undertook each day barely sufficed to keep them alive. But there was no alternative.

In the driest season, just before the bitter winds and the high, snow-giving clouds returned to give them another year of life, only a few people made the climb. A couple of jugs of water every day were all that the mountain gave them, and it had to suffice. Fortunately, there were fewer than a hundred people in the Clan, so the water was enough…barely.

But it wasn’t enough to be active. It would never be enough to grow the food they needed, or to give them the strength to take stolen territory back from the Sol Clan.

He looked longingly across the expanse of the roof of the colossal building they stood upon. There, in the distance, just a few minutes’ walk away, stood the wall. This one wasn’t built of the grey material of the Redoubt itself but of shards of rock that had fallen from the mountains over the centuries. The structure, twice as tall as a man, had only one purpose: to keep the Wolf Clan out of territory that had once been theirs. It stretched into the distance.

This one is full, Vianna said. She handed him a jug brimming with ice-cold water. Take it down.

Don’t you want to go? Waiting for the rivulet to fill the jugs was boring, especially if you were the last one up there.

No. It’s a beautiful day. I think I’ll enjoy the sun for a bit.

It’s always sunny up here, and you never want to stay. From what I remember, you’re usually the first one to go back, and when you aren’t, anyone unlucky enough to be stranded up here with you has to listen to you gripe.

Just go.

She didn’t need to ask twice. It was a long trudge to the ramp, but he didn’t begrudge the weight of the jar he was carrying; it was the Clan’s lifeline, worth more than the Elders’ jewels. He took it unhurriedly, step by step, careful not to spill a single drop until, three levels below the dusty roof, he deposited it next to the other containers that had come down that afternoon.

Tanar, an elderly man whose face was a network of deep wrinkles and who could no longer lift a water container, made a mark on a woven sheet. Thank you Kine. Did you take any for yourself?

No. I’m strong enough that I can go without.

Drink.

But…

Just drink. On the last days of the dry season, the water-bearers are the people who need it the most.

Kine obeyed. He felt the cool water run down his throat and then imagined he could feel it rushing around his parched body. You can send the next team up. Vianna was filling the last pot.

Tanar shuffled off to find the group that had been assigned to the evening shift—water had to be collected all through the night in the dry season, the rivulet didn’t stop just because nobody was harvesting the water, and the Clan needed every drop they could get. Kine wandered back to his own rooms.

Once he left the Place of Water, the emptiness of the Wolf demesne hit him. Ninety-odd people were too few to fill the ten floors of their land. Public areas, empty tracts and even unused sporting facilities occupied the cavernous floors. Kine often felt lost in the vast emptiness, but he was also grateful for the space he could call his own. He’d claimed four living areas, complete with eight rooms. With all the living space available to them, no one had raised an eyebrow.

Once home, he placed the torch he’d been carrying to light his way on the entrance sconce. Even after the water he’d drunk, his thirst was too powerful to allow him to do anything but flop onto one of his beds. The mattress was made of some kind of foam, flattened by the years, but still serviceable.

His eyes closed of their own accord.

And suddenly he was awake. There was a boy, not yet at puberty, in his room, holding a torch nearly as big as he was in one trembling hand.

Kine breathed again. You scared the hell out of me, Gimm. I thought you were a Sol raiding party come to take me away.

There had been no Sol raiding parties in living memory. The great Iron Gate that separated the two realms—and also represented the only link between the Wolf Clan’s upper levels and the rest of the Redoubt—was rusted shut and had been since Kine was a child. The Wolf Clan still had a guard stationed in front of it, but more out of habit than any real fear: any attempt to open it would be heard for miles around, and would likely take days. It was more than enough time for the people of the Wolf Clan to prepare to repel the invaders…or to flee.

Tanar says you have to come.

Tanar? I already did my shift. But Kine was already standing. Even if water hadn’t been such a serious matter, respect for the wishes of the Elders was one of the Clan’s central tenets.

He said to tell you it’s about Vianna.

What about Vianna?

I don’t know, the boy stammered, frightened by Kine’s sudden vehemence. He just said to get you and to tell you it’s about Vianna.

Not bothering to wait for the boy, Kine took his torch and sprinted across the dark floor. He cursed his choice of the bottommost level for his quarters. He’d picked the farthest corner possible because he wanted to have privacy, to be as far away from his overprotective mother as possible, but had gradually come to understand that it had been an error. Being far from his mother meant that he was also impossibly distant from everything else.

He would have died before admitting it, though.

Tanar waited for him to catch his breath and straighten up, and then laid a hand on his shoulder. You shouldn’t run like that. It makes you sweat and lose water you can’t afford.

Never mind about that. What happened to Vianna?

The old man’s eyes were sad. We don’t know. I was hoping she was with you.

Why would she be with me? I told you, she was waiting for the jug to fill. How long ago was that? I’ve been asleep.

You left here half an hour ago. The evening shift sent a boy down to say there was no sign of her, so I told him to get you.

Because you thought maybe she would be with me?

I was young once, too. I thought, perhaps, she was sharing your bed.

Kine had dreamed about it more than once, but though they were close, it had never come to pass. He believed he’d been able to hide his feelings for her, but it seemed that he wasn’t quite as secretive as he thought. He replied through clenched teeth. No. She isn’t.

Then I’m afraid she’s gone.

Gone?

The boys I sent up found no sign of her. Just a half-filled jug.

Cold fear gripped his insides. Vianna would never have abandoned a water vessel. Something must have happened to her. Have you sent people to look for her on the different levels?

Tanar shook his head. We’ll need to do that, but there were some girls playing beside the ramp. They say that no one came down between the time you did and when the evening crew went up.

Kine remembered seeing them and having to step carefully to avoid disturbing their game of stones without spilling his precious cargo. They would have noticed if Vianna had passed by.

I need to go find her, he said.

Tanar didn’t try to stop him, but his expression conveyed the lack of hope he felt. It was clear to Kine that the man didn’t expect any results.

Kine sprinted up the stairs, heedless of the sweat beginning to form under his arms, the unconscionable waste of water. Some things were more important than water. Even if they hadn’t shared a bed, he’d grown up with Vianna, sharing experiences that were more important to him than anything else. A few years earlier, the stones he’d stepped lightly to keep from scattering would have belonged to Kine and Vianna, as they passed hours together, biding time until they were called to bear water. She was too important in his life for him to simply accept that she was gone.

He made a beeline to where the youths sent up to fetch the water congregated around the tiny spring.

Have you seen any sign of her?

Nothing.

The problem was that, from the water, innumerable tracks in the dust led in every direction. It was impossible to guess whether any of the footsteps that radiated out belonged to her.

A disturbing number of the tracks led to the edge of the wall. Just like Kine, many of the water-bearers liked to look down onto the endless plains or onto the clouds below. Over the years, many parched youths had decided that the clouds looked moist and soft and had, ignoring cries from onlookers, stepped over the edge.

Kine decided not to think about that. She couldn’t have gone over the edge. Not Vianna.

The roof was vast. It would take ten minutes to walk to the wall and even longer to reach the frontier opposite the mountains. That one was marked by a sheer drop of four levels onto territory that had been deserted for as long as anyone could remember. The drop was enough to discourage casual exploration, and an organized expedition to claim lands was unthinkable. The Wolf Clan had enough trouble keeping itself fed without thinking of expanding to new, equally arid territory.

Even the tiny portion of the roof under Wolf Clan control was big enough that, if she’d wandered away and lost her bearings, she might not be visible.

I’m going to look for her, he said.

Night will be falling soon, one of the boys reminded him.

Don’t worry. I won’t fall off.

He set out in the direction of the wall, keeping the mountains to his right and his eyes to his left. He didn’t think about his reasons for this, just told himself that it was the shortest route to any landmark, and if she had not wandered too far from the cliffs, he should be able to see her.

But, though he reached the wall before night fell, there was no sign of her anywhere. There was no time to search the roof. He would only risk his own life as well as Vianna’s by attempting it. He sat for some minutes, just looking at the wall, built from numberless shards of black stone held together by a dark mortar. It had marked the edge of Wolf territory since long before he was born, and every member of his clan knew that it was death to scale it. No one who had done so had ever returned.

About to turn away in despair, something caught his eye. It was nearly invisible in the failing light, but there was a long scuff on the stone, a grey mark that stood out from the rest. Though it was nearly impossible to tell for certain, it seemed to be fresh, as if someone’s foot had slipped while climbing the barrier…or as if someone had dragged a heavy burden up.

He didn’t stop to think. Seconds after he realized what he was looking at, Kine was standing atop the wall, half expecting to be swarmed by dozens of armed men, or destroyed by the magic fire of the Sol Clan.

But nothing happened. There was no one to be seen. The roof on the other side of the wall was just like the side that belonged to the Wolf Clan: big, dusty, and empty.

It made no sense. Had the Sols grown so arrogant that they would dare to abduct a Wolf woman and not even leave sentries behind to warn of the inevitable rescue party? Did they think the Wolf Clan wouldn’t respond to such an outrage?

He thought about it for a moment. Perhaps they did. It was possible that they knew just how weak his people had grown, and that this had driven them to conduct an abduction raid for the first time since… Kine had no idea when it had happened last. Certainly not in his lifetime. That same knowledge would have given them the confidence to leave no sentries, which meant that the men who’d done this would be able to return to the comfort of their homes.

But how? How could they know anything about the Wolf Clan? The Iron Gate had been closed for years. It was a massive portal of solid metal that stretched from roof to floor and would have taken more men than the Wolf Clan possessed to budge. Unless they could see all the way to the water source from the wall, there was no way for the Sols to watch any Wolf activity—and even if they could, all they would see was people collecting water. There wasn’t much they could conclude from that.

As darkness fell, a light became visible. It seemed to be a few minutes’ walk from the wall, and low to the ground. In fact, Kine realized, it actually was in the ground: he was looking at the entrance to a ramp.

That must have been where the assailants had taken Vianna.

He climbed down the back of the wall. He was surprised to find that there was no provision for a defensive force, no platform for soldiers to stand and repel an attack by the Wolf Clan. The climb down was essentially the same as the climb up, in reverse. The wall did nothing other than make it difficult to pass, equally so on both sides.

Kine made his way slowly towards the light. He’d heard so many tales about the all-powerful Sol Clan, masters of the Redoubt, that his mind had conjured up an image of the land on the other side of the wall as a paradise of lush gardens and sparkling fountains. Encountering the same dusty stone found on the Wolf side of the divide was an anticlimax.

The illumination proceeded from a nearly depleted torch abandoned in a sconce beside a ramp that was the twin of the one that led into his own clan’s floors. He approached it cautiously, looking for any sign of sentries or ambush, but saw nothing. The ramp seemed to be completely covered in accumulated dust, except for a small band, perhaps an arm’s length wide, on the left side where the grey stone had been rubbed clear of dirt. There were no tracks in the dusty part, and no way to see if there were any in the clear portion, which meant that, even with the aid of the light from within, he couldn’t tell how many people had passed that way.

Kine crept closer to the entrance, ears straining for any sound and trying to look as far inside as possible.

Nothing. If he wanted to know what was waiting for him below, he would have to go in there and have a look.

His courage nearly failed him. The Sols were all powerful. Every single Wolfborn child was taught about them from the day they were old enough to understand. It was etched into their souls that the Wolf Clan existed only at the sufferance of Sol power.

Yes, Vianna was the person he adored most in the world, but what hope did he have of getting her back? They could have taken her anywhere in the Redoubt, and she would be surrounded by thousands of well-fed Sol troops. He was certain that the Sols wouldn’t be parched to the point that they were nearly incapable of moving. They would have water to spare.

The right thing to do would be to turn back. Scale the wall as best he could in the darkness and tell the Elders what he’d seen. What use was throwing his own life away after they’d already lost Vianna? The Clan would not be well-served by losing the strongest of their young water- bearers, even if the snows would soon be coming to make water plentiful and life easy for a season.

He sat there for a long time, his heart thumping in his ears, well aware that each beat represented one more step for Vianna’s captors, one more stride into the warren of Sol power.

Finally, he turned away from the entrance and walked back towards Wolf territory. Defeat was something Wolfs were well-equipped to accept.

But something made him stop. The image of Vianna confronted by the same situation came unbidden into his mind. No matter who the Sols had taken, his best friend wouldn’t have turned back. She’d have gone down the ramp to return with the victim or not at all.

Kine turned back towards the light.

2

The light came from a single torch, slightly different, yet similar in design, to the ones that the Wolf Clan employed. Kine was bathed in the flickering orange glow. He knew that the satisfaction of knowing that the Sol Clan couldn’t make the ancient light fixtures of their levels work correctly either would be short-lived if anyone was watching, but he took a moment to savor it all the same. Victories—even tiny moral victories—over the ancient enemy were few and far between.

No death flew from the shadows, and he moved out of the pool of light into the relative comfort of the darkness beyond.

He stopped again, unsure what to do. The tiny domain of the Wolf Clan, its few floors on an upper corner of the Redoubt, were big enough to get lost in, even without considering the places where one could simply disappear into holes in the floor. The vast expanse of the Sol Clan’s territory would be impossible to navigate in the dark.

Even so, Kine moved farther from the light, towards the center of the level on the Sol side, away from the wall that separated the enemy from his own people.

As his eyes grew accustomed to the darkness, he realized that it was possible to see well enough to walk without fear of falling into a gap. The Big Moon had come out, and there were large holes in the roof that allowed its pale beams to shine into the building.

The Big Moon.

It was the first thing that gave him a sense of being in an alien place. The Big Moon didn’t shine on the Wolf Clan’s land, even though its presence brightened the whole sky. In order to see it, one had to climb a few lengths up the cliff face; only then did it become visible, just above the Sol Clan’s wall on the roof, almost too bright to look upon.

The Wolf Clan had to content themselves with the reddish glow of the Small Moon, which was as good as nothing at all.

The pale light made his surroundings look like an endless collection of bare columns bathed in an eerie glow until the familiar form of a ramp leading down to the next level greeted him. He took it.

There was nothing to be seen on the landing, but the ramp was the top of a system of ramps stacked one above the other and leading down. He took them one at a time.

By the time he reached the third level from the roof, the light from the Big Moon had faded completely. He kept moving, however, slowly, ever so slowly, putting one foot in front of the other and feeling his way down the ramps with his hands. Each ramp began just below the beginning of the previous one, so the slopes were parallel. The main danger was of falling into the hollow created by the ramp itself. There had once been barriers of some kind around the openings, but they’d long since rusted away.

So he dragged one hand along the edge of the pit as he crawled, moving as fast as he dared.

Kine lost count of how many levels he descended that way. Definitely more than the mere ten floors that the Wolf Clan controlled. Each level was dark as a tomb and felt completely empty to him. No sounds came out of the shadows, and the air seemed to move around unimpeded, as if free to roam a vast emptiness. At one point, he stopped and took a deep breath, inspired by the fact that, come what might, he was farther down in the Redoubt than he’d ever been in his life before, deeper in the enormous building that held them all than any member of the Wolf Clan in decades, possibly centuries.

And then he remembered Vianna. Unless he’d missed something important, she was farther down. If she was still alive.

Ignoring the danger, he began to crawl more quickly, desperate to keep from losing still more time to the people he was pursuing.

Empty level after empty level greeted him, miles and miles of unused surface area. A hundred Wolf Clans could fit into the space he’d already seen, and the sheer amount of surface to grow food was mind-boggling. How many window-side pots could be planted on this many floors? He had no clue, but certainly enough to feed thousands of people and their animals.

But it all stood empty. Where were the fearsome and magical Sol soldiers, ready to punish anyone who dared to cross their frontiers? Kine suspected that if the Wolf Clan walked into this area, they could occupy twenty levels…and no one on the Sol side would even notice they’d been taken. The dust under his hands made him guess that the men who took Vianna had been the first to cross some of the levels in years.

Or perhaps they simply had an alternative path—probably better